Ireland and New Zealand are playing in Chicago on Saturday, but Canadians can't watch.David Rogers / Getty Images

The current state of rugby on Canadian TV is dire.

Hoping to watch the All Blacks in Chicago this weekend? I hope you bought a ticket for the game itself.

This is not going to be a good autumn to be a rugby fan in Canada.

With TV rights prices shooting up in the UK and France, Canadian broadcasters have said, “no thanks.”

When not even pub and bar pay-per-view vendor Premium Sports declines to pick up the rights, you know things are bad.

Yes, the asking price for overseas rights to international rugby matches from Ireland and the UK are obviously so high, Canadian vendors don’t see a way to make any money in re-selling them to venues who would charge a cover charge to interested fans, let alone via standard television distribution.

That’s why, for example, there’s no way in Canada, legally, to watch this weekend’s Ireland vs. New Zealand — or any of the All Blacks games this month.

Want to watch Wales vs. Australia on Saturday? Nope, won’t be able to. England vs. South Africa on the 12th. Again, nope. New Zealand vs. France on Nov. 26? Again…ok you get the point. (UPDATE: TV5 has France’s games in French.)

We’re living in a rugby wasteland.

In fact, the only games available from overseas, other than Canada’s tour, are very low-rent. Japan’s home match vs. Argentina is one, the Barbarians’s matches vs. South Africa and Fiji and the New Zealand Maori matches vs. the USA and the Harlequins are the only offerings the US-based online streaming service the Rugby Channel has the Canadian rights for.

Only one of Canada’s tour, the game vs. Ireland on Nov. 12, is on regular TV (as of now, the matches vs. Romania and Samoa will be on an online stream). The CBC has just picked up the rights, a small piece of good news. They seems to be dipping their toe into a new area of interest, so pleased they were with the interest levels for rugby sevens during the Rio Olympics. Of course, XVs is a whole different beast, but given the decent number (150,000) TSN drew last June for Canada vs. Japan at BC Place and the solid numbers last year’s Rugby World Cup pulled, you can see why the CBC has interest in exploring a new audience.

But the high rights fees may preclude all that. Canada isn’t the only place where rugby could go dark: Australia is in the midst of its own TV rights mess. As of this week, the Wallabies’ matches vs. England (Dec. 4) and France (Nov. 20) aren’t going to be on any Australian channel. According to Iain Payten of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the rights fees were so high that Network 10, the usual over the air broadcaster, declined to bid on any games, pay TV channel Fox Sports declined altogether and BeIN sports only went for the lower-priced matches vs. Wales, Scotland and Ireland.UPDATE: BeIN is now showing all five games for Australian viewers.

In the past, some matches have seen rights secured just days in advance, Payten notes, but the mere fact he wrote the column is telling. Don’t hold your breath, was his suggestion.

Rugby has gone the way of big-money, and plenty are set to be left behind. If neither the France nor England match are picked up, it will be the first time since 1984 a Wallabies test won’t be anywhere on Australian TV — and that match 32 years ago, long before professionalism, was in Fiji. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter FitzSimons notes it’s about not enough Australians wanting to watch, but it’s also about a gamble on the part of the rights-holders: they see a price on interest and assumed foreigners would pay. Will they adjust going forward? Or does the overseas money just not matter anymore?

If it’s the latter, Canada will be in the cold for a long time; the former, well Canadian fans can only hope that’s the case.

The situation south of the border is somewhat better, as ESPN3 is showing some games, along with NBC Sports (they’ve got this weekend’s action on delay) and the Rugby Channel.

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